Cassidy James

Chapter One, Cassidy James

Before

"Graham, wait for me!" she screeched from behind me.

I smirked as I glanced over my shoulder to see the distance I made as I bobbed and weaved through the trees behind our houses. When I came to the clearing, my hands dropped to my knees. I panted, exhausted, as I waited for her to catch up.

I didn't flinch when Cassidy's fist punched my back. I smiled because it didn't hurt at all. Girls were such wimps.

"You're not very nice, you know?" she panted, cheeks pink from the heat, little twigs and branches sticking to her braid.

I shrugged my shoulders as I passed her. I could almost feel her glare burning a hole through my back. I smiled, of course, when she followed.

It was a Friday night. Our parents were on Cassidy's deck, drinking and laughing. We lived down a long country road with a lot of woods and fields, the only two houses for miles. There was nothing really to do but run down trails and hide in the tall grass behind where we lived.

"I brought us a blanket," she said, spreading out a pink My Little Pony blanket on the grass before sitting down.

I shook my head. No way was I sitting on that girly thing. "No, thanks," I said and plopped down on the grass instead.

Unaffected, Cassidy lay back on the blanket, arms at her sides and eyes to the sky. I lay down too, but didn't look up. I just stared at her. Cassidy was the prettiest girl that I had ever seen.

"Did you see that?!" She moved quickly up to her elbows and looked at me, wide-eyed.

Hurriedly, I looked up to the sky, which looked the same as it always did. I swallowed hard then spit out, "Uh, yeah, that was awesome!" I hadn't seen it, but I knew what she was talking about. Tonight there was a meteor shower, the biggest one all year, and Cassidy loved shooting stars.

"Wow! I never saw one that big before. Have you, Graham?" There was so much excitement in her voice.

I smiled. "No, that was definitely the biggest," I replied, still playing along.

Cassidy's smile reached each side of her face, showing her two missing teeth in the front. "What's so funny?" she asked, confused as I giggled at her.

"You look funny with no teeth."

She tilted her head to the side and shot me an evil glare before pushing me down to the ground. "You're so mean," Cassidy said, huffing as she lay back down and looked up to the sky again.

She tried to ignore me lying next to her for the next I don't know how long, but it didn't last, especially when the stars started shooting all over the place, one after another, so bright even I noticed them.

"Holy moly, there's two more!" she shouted again, pointing at each one as they soared across the sky.

"Wow!" I pointed to one that was like a mile long. "Did you see that one?"

"Oh yeah! That one was awesome," Cassidy said as she sat up, practically shaking with excitement. "This is so crazy! I've never seen so many in my whole entire life. There's like a gazillion of them, Graham. This is amazing! Can you believe we're witnessing an actual meteor shower?! These aren't always visible, you know. Usually it's too cloudy anyway."

" I didn't even know meteor showers existed," I admitted, sitting right up with her, not believing that this was actually happening. "Holy cow! There was like three at a time!" I shouted, pointing.